Out of all the national carriers in the US, there’s no kidding that Verizon’s lineup is saturated to the top with some of the industry’s leading devices! Amongst the highly competitive devices, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Motorola DROID RAZR stand out immensely thanks to their specialty refinements, but considering that our appetites are voracious, there can only be one that can be proclaimed as being the best of the best. Knowing that, we bet you’re curious to find out which one will claim your hard earned $300, so let’s jump in.

Design:

Actually, this shouldn’t surprise much people, seeing that we’ve raved tremendously over the Motorola DROID RAZR’s razor thin construction, sturdy feel, and choice of employing premium materials. In all honesty, it features the highest level of quality design in a smartphone we’ve seen all year, and when you pit it against the underwhelming and typical Samsung designed smartphone, it resonates dramatically to capture our attention. It’s not to say that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus is an ugly looking device, rather, it’s simply way too conventional to pique our interest.

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus (left) and the Motorola DROID RAZR (right)

Mainly because of its higher resolution, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus’ display is the superior one between the two – plus, it’s larger at 4.65-inches. Naturally, boasting a resolution of 720 x 1280 is indeed eye-catching, but it shows it detailed superiority over the qHD (540 x 960) resolution of the DROID RAZR, when you look at things like fine text in a zoomed out view within the web browser. Still, our eyes enjoy the Super AMOLED displays used by both, as they exhibit overly saturated color tones, wide-viewing angles, and high-contrast appearance to reel us in.

Viewing angles

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus (left) and the Motorola DROID RAZR (right)

Above their massive sized displays, 1.3-megapixel front-facing cameras sit in the same locations on both devices – giving us the opportunity to snap self-portraits or have some fun video chatting.

Meanwhile, capacitive Android buttons line the bottom edge on the DROID RAZR. However, with the Ice Cream Sandwich powered Verizon Galaxy Nexus, its on-screen buttons are incorporated with the interface – thus, making it very clean looking.

Front-facing cameras

Android buttons

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus (left) and the Motorola DROID RAZR (right)

Although both offer video-out functionality, the availability of a microHDMI port on the DROID RAZR is undoubtedly useful in quickly sharing content – whereas the Verizon Galaxy Nexus requires an MHL adapter.

Top

Right

Bottom

Left

The sides of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus (bottom) and the Motorola DROID RAZR (top)

The DROID RAZR (top) has a microHDMI port

Volume rockers

Power keys

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus (bottom) and the Motorola DROID RAZR (top)

On one hand, the Galaxy Nexus features a removable battery, which makes it easy to swap it out. However, the DROID RAZR packs a microSD card slot to increase its internal storage capacity.

Rear cameras

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus (left) and the Motorola DROID RAZR (right)

Verizon Galaxy Nexus 360-degrees View:

Drag the picture or use the keyboard arrows to rotate the phone.
Double click or press keyboard Space to zoom in/out

Motorola DROID RAZR 360-degrees View:

Drag the picture or use the keyboard arrows to rotate the phone.
Double click or press keyboard Space to zoom in/out

"bars" are more understood by the normal person who would be deciding between these two phones and looking for a good comparison. if you read the entire article, i hope you noticed...

"Above all, the biggest problem we notice with the Galaxy Nexus is its poor signal strength – resulting in frustrations ranging from losing 4G LTE connectivity, to losing its entire connection and taking an extensive time reestablishing it"

which does not refer to bars but rather the signal strength and loss of connectivity which vzw has admitted plagues our nexus's and will hopefully be able to fix at least partially with a software update. while PA posted the article from anandtech, that article does NOT explain why so many of us who have had both these phones have experienced real life better signal with the RAZR (not dBm or bars but actual dropped calls and lack of service period with the nexus places that i pulled down 11mps 4g/lte with the RAZR). and is this really the only site that says that if the razr had ICS it would be the clear winner? that seems ridiculous.... of course it would be....and i love my nexus (when its connected. lol)

good article and comparison. ive had both for almost 2 weeks each and every point made is a valid one. will always be a case of personal preference and which things each person holds as high priority. The non removable battery for instance doesnt bother me and some others but others would never buy a phone that they couldnt have 2 or 3 batteries to swap on trips..... to each their own i guess.

"which does not refer to bars but rather the signal strength and loss of connectivity which vzw has admitted plagues our nexus's and will hopefully be able to fix at least partially with a software update. while PA posted the article from anandtech, that article does NOT explain why so many of us who have had both these phones have experienced real life better signal with the RAZR (not dBm or bars but actual dropped calls and lack of service period with the nexus places that i pulled down 11mps 4g/lte with the RAZR). and is this really the only site that says that if the razr had ICS it would be the clear winner? that seems ridiculous.... of course it would be....and i love my nexus (when its connected. lol)"

Exactly...

Also, this isnt the first site to favor the RAZR over the G Nex. Some sites favor the RAZR over the Rezound too.

Why is it that some ppl are overlooking when ppl mention real world use, and not just the bars or decibel readings??

Historically Samsung has had weaker radios than Moto. Been that way before Android came out. What I'm guessing, assuming is alot of former Moto owners were spoiled with having better reception and didnt realize the phone also play a part in reception.

if the razr had its current features but also 4.0 (which its going to get) its a better phone. the Nexus is awesome, don't get me wrong but lets be honest. The reason that the phone, in many peoples eyes, is better has a large part to do with the new OS. not the phone itself. 5.0mp (worse) 1.2 gHz processor (same), bigger, and heavier. The screen is "bigger" because of the not having hard keys, but in reality, which the article clearly depicts, the screen is viewed is the same size. The phone itself is NOT better than the Razr, with ICS it is. once the Razr gets ICS it will be the better of the two. all day.

Yeah but look at Motorola's history... I can't remember what Moto said is their target for an update (Q1 or Q2) or if they even gave a timeline in the first place, but I don't consider that "soon". Q1 doesn't mean Jan 1st. It's most likely towards the end of the stated quarter, so March 31st or June 30th. That's IF they stick to their own timeline. They very well may not. What happened to their unlocked bootloader promise?

So, you can have ICS NOW, or you can wait. It's an issue of personal preference, but I'm tired of reading comments that are just blindly saying "oh yeah, it'll be here very very soon". Follow the history.

And how easy will the RAZR be to root, if you're so inclined? Look at the Droid X2. There are still issues with gettings ROMs working well on it, rooting that thing was a PITA and I'm pretty sure it's still only temp root.

The update will be coming.... but I obviously do not know when, I will just clarify that. But, as far rooting, the Bionic from what ive read/seen isgreat when rooting it. I would only assume the razr would be similar but I am not sure. The other thing that the Razr has are the pre-installed apps like motocast. You dont get that with the Nexus. In fact, moto phones are the only ones with moto/zumocast, smart action(which is really pretty sweet). You do not get apps like that on any other Droid. The only app close is doubletwist with air sync but its does not get docs.

and not only that but you also get the added benefit of Webtop if you should ever find it useful. Motorolas are really the easiest to root i think and with a simple bootstrap utility loading custom roms isn't really a big deal.

I had the Razr before the Nexus, and I do miss how the Razr worked so much better. But I'm banking on the Nexus getting fixed soon, and I don't think you'll see developer support like this for any other android phone for quite a while. There's more to a phone then it's physical qualities, and people tend to forget that.

Speaking of "noobs," it's hard to take your comment seriously when their are so many errors in the text. As far as I know, "strengt," "egual," and "proffesional" aren't words and I'm pretty sure you meant to ask for a "recent" test instead of a "resent" one. Before attacking someone who is just trying to help buyers make an informed decision, you might want to make sure you can actually "spell" out your argument properly. Thanks.

My RAZR™ got me laid last night; my two college roommates, who each have a Galaxy Nexus, were in our dorm room syncing their phones to their laptops (copying music and videos and other stuff they can't put on an external micro SD card).

Yep, HD video, good thing I installed a 32GB memory card; there are infinite advantages to having external memory, especially when recording external lays'. And, the real beauty is that after any such recordings, I can just connect my RAZR™ to my HDTV with my Micro HDMI cable, select "Mirror Display", and watch on an externally huge screen.

ll I know is I am never going to get the razr and I love my galaxy and also sure ics needs some kinks worked out. I think you put I've on the razr and I will still choose the nexus just because of the bigger screen with no buttons and same physical size. This guy did poor comparing these. When I Gwent into the store and compared them I liked the galaxy better that's why I got it.

Well other than the screen res, OS, and slightly more potent chip, the Razr is probably the way to go. The Razr is incredibly sexy and should have been on PA's best phone award. People are still wondering how they crammed an LTE radio into the Razr lol.

I think this was a fair comparism, the Razr does get a lot better signal with LTE and its good that PA has got the courage to announce a winner after months of saying
"You can't go wrong with either and we like them equally"

The Razr looks like it had a lot more work put into its design, and its design is lovely and unmistakable. I cant help but think we're on the brink of a discovery to radically improve battery life on these phones, where current battery life on smartphones now is sad.

great question! it'll of course be personal preference but i like the solid feel/contrustion of the non removable battery anyway.... but to answer your question, the convenience of swapping out microSD cards is much more important for me. won't stop me from buying a phone but it just makes it silly easy to bounce between phones and not have to wait for 28gb of music, movies, pictures, etc to transfer to my new device. just my 2 cents :)

I'm with the removable sd card being more convenient. I have sd cards from 2008, 2009.

And I actually removed the back from my RAZR. Its seriously not that hard. Did it with my fingers. Since they have external battery packs with ALOT of juice and extremely small...I will go that route from now on. Same price I paid for an extended Droid 1 battery I can get almost 3x as much battery from one of these tiny externals. Anker is one, forgot the other one.

I agree the Razr is better than the Nexus. The only people complaining are the ones who went out thinking they were buying the best phone on the market because of all the hype this phone has generated. Now $300 is spent and you are now locked for 2 years unless you paid retail of $649.00. Asfor signal strength..since you dont believe the bars on your nexus..go to menu settings about phone status and view your signal strengh for yourself. The Nexus i had in my hand displayed strength of 88dBm and my phone had 102dBm. Keep in my the higher the number the better the signal. I also was in a LTE. The Nexus would not even come close to LTE..All phones in the kiosk were all on LTE...Razr..thunderbolt..bionic. stratosphere..etc....The Nexus displayed a weak 1 bar 3g connection. The only clear advantage is ICS. The 4.65 screen is not major because 4.3 is suffice for me.

Um.... No.... you probably forgot the "-" with those numbers. So if you reported the right numbers, the Nexus would be -88 vs. -102 dBm for the Razr, meaning the Nexus had a stronger signal. Secondly, did you LogCat the numbers on the Moto phone? If not, you probably didn't get the LTE data.

I think the Razr is awesome and would have one if the Nexus didn't exist. Personally, I like Moto's build better (have had OGD and D2), but the Nexus is SLICK. I live WAY out in the country (ATT stops working 12 miles from our house) and the GNex has no issues with signal.

1) I thought phones measured in negative dBm... like -88. I only have a 3G phone so maybe this is different for LTE devices.

2) The LOWER the number, the better the signal (with -dBm). So, right now my Droid 1 with CM7 (2.3.7) is showing -68 dBm. That's better than -100 dBm. If I set the phone to airplane mode, it jumps to -120, which is essentially NO signal.

Lol, are you guys serious? Galaxy Nexus is better than the Droid RazR? You can't be serious to think that, the only thing the Nexus has over the RazR is ICS and a user removable battery and well the higher screen density(still subjective though). But based on this strangely odd at times editorial the RazR is still better than the Galaxy Nexus. Why in the world would the reviewer say "If local storage is a big concern to you, then you might want to stick with the Galaxy Nexus with its healthy 32GB of storage. Conversely, the Motorola DROID RAZR sizes up at a total of 24GB, which breaks down to 8GB of internal memory and a preloaded 16GB microSD card.", what crap. The Nexus comes with whatever memory it has and that's it, the RazR on the other hand has an SD card slot to increase it's storage beyond what the Nexus has. What odd stuff this reviewer confuses, yes?

Then it gets normal are back to making sense where the RazR outperforms the Nexus in 4G connectivity as well as being consistently faster, also the RazR comes with it's built in micro HDMI port for use with it's dock and quite handy for parallel viewing to TV's, right but you lot think the Nexus is better right?

The RazR has the camera that actually records at 29fps, camera is just about on par with the Nexus for still photos and it works better in the dark.

Then here's the kicker, the RazR beats the Nexus simply in making phone calls and voice reproduction, continuing the Motorola trend of having flawless voice calling in their Droid devices. Usually the Android following would kill the iPhone for not being able to make calls but you guys want to the Nexus slide when the reviewer states that the RazR clearly is the better of the two? Biased Much?!?

One thing that sticks out in my mind is this, just last year phone reviewers were downing phones that couldn't last 6+ hours, heck this year there aren't many phones as powerful as these that can last 8+ hours. But here we have two first gen LTE phones both going 10 hours mind you LTE is a major battery drainer and this is looked at as poor battery life. I don't get phone reviewers at times, don't compare the life on these phones to non LTE phones that's stupid as hell. I hear of being objective, but some parts of this review looks subjective mixed in with objective.

In conclusion I say that the Nexus bezel is better looking, and the width is very attractive, but based on actual real world use the RazR is the more complete package. Mind you the RazR hasn't even gotten ICS yet and it's a match for the Galaxy Nexus. Some extras the Nexus has like NFC and the like are nice, but it's not widespread enough to be looked at as something to laud over the RazR. From the standpoint of a phone that works and functions I would take the RazR, but from just a technical standpoint I would go with the Galaxy Nexus.

Ok I am a Nexus owner and coming from the droid X the camera on the nexus is amazing. It takes the best pictures I have ever seen on a camera phone. The phone also does not feel cheap or like you are holding a hunk of plastic. I am very satisfied with this phone. no regrets.

Do you idiots remember your "Best smart phone of the year award"? You put the nexus first and now the Razor?? Come on now!! How in the hell do you expect us readers to believe a word you say after this? Idiots!!

It is amazing to read reviews of the Nexus. Some of them say signal strength is mediocre, some say battery life is less than some other LTE devices. Most say the camera is bad and video capture is crap. More reviews than not say build quality is suspect. Now most love ICS, and rave on the screen, but that is the only 2 areas reviews agree on is good. But every review is high, even if the write UPS do not support it. Now, the RAZR is a great phone, from build quality to responsive screen. Now I understand looks are a preference, but the Nexus has actually very few advantages over Motorola's top end Verizon offering. You are going to get updates on the Nexus long after the RAZR, but that's it. And the RAZR will get ICS. I think it is an easy win for Moto.

all i understand that phonearena in this V.S. article unlike the ''Nexus vs SGS2'' said that if the Motorola D RAZR had ICS it will be the better phone
i still think that the SGS2 will be better than both of them

I went in to a VZW store and took pics with both the Nexus and the Rezound, and then I zoomed in all the way. The Rezound pictures looked slightly more grainy than the Nexus pictures, which I wasn't really happy with. I guess that is real world evidence that the higher MP count does not matter if the sensor is not kept up to par with the increased pixel count.

OR, the Rezound was zooming in further and thus showing MORE of the pixelation. *shrug*.

All I know is that the Rezound can take pictures almost as fast as the Nexus (important to me) and is only $150 for upgrade as opposed to $220 for Nexus. But I love the way the Nexus feels in my hand, even though the Rezound is still barely thinner than the Droid 1.

For comment number 15. Spec wise the Nexus is not the best phone. ICS yes...but that platform combining gingerbread and honeycomb for a smartphone still has lots of bugs.. 5mp camera.. come on man....What happened to the exinos processor...signal...battery life...multi touch issues...The Razr...Bionic and Rezound are the top Lte phones on VW...period...the nexus is a Charge with Ics and thats it...

exynos does not play with lte, go read up bud. mp does not mean everything.
If you think the nexus is a droid charge with ics, you are sadly mistaken.
Nexii devices are always the first to run the latest version of android and does not take months to see an update that already dropped.
If you think those phones are the best on vzw, to each his own but let's see which phone will still be supported a year from now.

"If you think those phones are the best on vzw, to each his own but let's see which phone will still be supported a year from now."

Most people here are waiting for the latest and the best to show up. They're not going to be holding on to the Nexus or Razr long enough to critique how well their devices will be supported a year from now.

Youre an idiot for believing the Nexus is the best phone of the year being released with 15 days left in the year and not even tested by consumers who are using it...vice giving the nexus such a title. Dont be so naive...let the consumer make this determination...Every phone that Apple releases...they make the same claim...when we all know this is clearly not the case....number 18.

I tend to agree with their final conclusion. "If the Razr had ICS here and now, it would be the winner"... yes, but it doesn't. That's like making a winning shot and someone saying "you couldn't make that again"... who cares, you made it just now.

I do, however, feel some of the key features of these phones were left out in the review. Both phones have 1080p video recording, however the nexus has the ability to snap photos WHILE recording video. The nexus also has the "zero shutter lag"... to snap multiple pictures (practically) instantly. Neither of these were mentioned in the camera section.

The Razr has smart actions (yes, I know there are apps that do the same things that are downloadable, but it's nice to have something built in from the manufacturer like this).

This review is decent, but seems to address only a few categories, but seems to miss a lot (battery life - as someone else listed earlier). In the end though, it does really come down to the person and what they prefer. ICS or "bells and whistles". Vanilla or Rocky Road?

I'm pretty sure anyone would be happy with either phone, I personally went with the RAZR, I wanted the accessories, the lapdock and the HD dock in particular. I also fell in love with the design and build quality. I am currently getting THREE FULL DAYS (72 hours) of battery life on my razr with average use, Two days with moderate use, Music mostly (my iTouch usually handles that)

What advantages do you think the sgs2 has over the Nexus/Razr? Better camera, maybe, processor speed, slight maybe. Other than that, that is it. No 4g, no ICS(nexus). I think when it comes down to it the screens are a wash. Who really looks at the screen that closely.... All 3 are great phones, pick one and be happy......

I purchased by RAZR for 1cent, and I admit that if the Nexus was offered at that same time, then for 1cent I probably would have went with Nexus. Both phones are awesome - RAZR will be even better when the Bootstrapped is unlocked and ICS ROMs are created.
What is nice for RAZR users is that we can now install ROMs using a mod called Safestrap - it creates a sort of dual mode for the phone where your original ROM is intact while we can install modded ROMs

I think you're expecting too much from your Razr. ICS won't magically unlock the bootloader. Just look at the previous locked phones from Motorola and see how limited ROM support is (for example, CyanogenMod). Safestrap is very limited in what it can do and I doubt you will ever see a fully loaded ROM for the Razr. For 1 cent, I'd definitely think it's a good deal but for me, the fact that Samsung hired the several great programmers such as the CM team and that they're currently working on the Nexus, means you'll see much better aftermarket support for the GN. And that's the dealbreaker for me.

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